MVN - Most Valuable Network

What the?

UPDATE: Fire Brand now has polls! Look over on the right and vote!

8:30 AM: I don’t know what happened, but the post that I had slated to post today completely disappeared. I’ll attempt to rewrite as much as I can over the course of the day and add some notes that I want to talk about, but for now I have to leave and get to work.

10:00 AM: Okay, I’m somewhat situated at work. One of the things I wanted to talk about was Jim Rice, who may make the Hall of Fame tomorrow. Rice, who received 64.8 percent of the votes last year, seemed to have had his best shot pass him in 2006. However, his best shot may very well be this year. The great crop of Hall of Famers has yet to really materialize like we all thought it would before the steroid issue busted into the fore-front. The two locks are Tony Gwynn and Cal Ripken, Jr. We all know this, but now the comparison of Mark McGwire and Jim Rice has really brought Rice out into the light. I’m not going to get into Rice’s candidacy, as Jim Rice for the Hall of Fame web site does a great job, as do the Red Sox.

I think Jim Rice should join Gwynn and Ripken in the Hall of Fame. He was an absolutely dominating hitter, and while I regret not being able to witness his exploits myself, I really have to wonder how he’d be portrayed if he had a winning attitude. Was he the David Ortiz of the mid-1970s to mid-1980s with an Albert Belle attitude? Perhaps so. The issue here is that the steroid issue is still fresh in the minds of many. Last year, the steroid outrage was all the rage, and Jim Rice saw a boost in candidacy. However, this year the steroid issue is prevalent, but has progressed past the point of rage and into rationality. Rice now has a candidate to measure up against: Mark McGwire. If he can’t get in after matching up with Mark McGwire in the post-steroids aftermath environment we are in, I doubt he will ever get in. Then again, many said 2006 was Rice’s best chance. We’ll see.

Shane, hopefully this keeps you off the streets!

One more note: The only thing I dislike about this steroid outrage is the free pass the NFL gets, while the MLB doesn’t. Steroids in baseball can kill your career. In the NFL, it gets you elected to the Pro Bowl.

Next up: talking about J.D. Drew and Roger Clemens.

12:00 PM: November 29th. That was the day that I posted on this web site saying that J.D. Drew was going to sign with the Boston Red Sox. It’s January 8th, and he’s still not on the Red Sox roster. This is starting to get a bit concerning. Both sides are adamant that a deal has been reached, but the Red Sox are looking for a way to protect themselves against Drew’s balky shoulder. Apparently, they’re either trying to reduce the amount of guaranteed money by changing some of the money ($15 million of the guaranteed $70, to be exact) into incentives that Drew can easily attain should he remain healthy. Other reports have less guaranteed years with vesting options built in. Either way, the magnitude of silence on both sides of the deal (agent Scott Boras represents Drew) and the length of how long this deal has been in the works for is concerning. I have to wonder if this is exactly why Trot Nixon isn’t inking any contracts yet. If Drew falls through, I have no doubt the Red Sox would tender an offer to Trot Nixon.

I think at this point, we need to severely evaluate if J.D. Drew should be a Red Sox or not. I truly feel Drew would be an amazing complement to the Red Sox and would dramatically upgrade the team’s dynamics on offense, defense and speed. However, if Drew cannot seem to do that because of serious questions from his shoulder, I would also encourage the Red Sox to say “no thanks” and move on. Wily Mo Pena is maturing. David Murphy has packed on pounds. Brandon Moss is climbing up the ladder. Jacoby Ellsbury is about to knock on the door. Trot Nixon is still available, but is the final viable option unless one includes Cliff Floyd, but he’s a left-fielder and even more injury-prone than Drew. A decision needs to be reached soon.

The Red Sox are still very much interested in Roger Clemens, says both John Henry and the agent for Clemens. Assuming Clemens does not make his decision until around June 1st, this could benefit the Red Sox greatly. We will have gone through two full months of the baseball season, which will allow us to gauge who is working out, who is not working out, and who is hurt. Is Joel Pineiro stinking it up while Jonathan Papelbon is doing just fine in the rotation? Make Papelbon the closer, cut Pineiro, sign Clemens. Is the bullpen in disarray due to the lack of a viable longman? Move Tim Wakefield into the bullpen, get rid of the worst reliever, sign Clemens. Waiting until June does nothing to harm the Red Sox’s chances to gain Clemens. I personally think it actually increases the chances. Best case scenario? The Red Sox do a full-court press for Clemens despite no injury issues and everyone doing great on the pitching side of the Red Sox. Inking Clemens, dealing a reliever to fill a need on the hitting side or obtaining minor leaguers. One thing is for sure: the Red Sox want Clemens just as much as the Yankees want him. Remember, it was the Red Sox that wined and dined Clemens last year, not the Yankees. The Yankees will unquestionably be doing the wining and dining this year because right now, their rotation does not strike fear into me at all, and if it stands as it currently is, they’re asking for a 2006 Red Sox repeat of ineffectiveness and injuries derailing the rotation. However, all reports seem to be that Clemens regretted signing with the Astros last year and not the Red Sox. Maybe he doesn’t regret it anymore, but there were many whispers that he did regret it over the course of last season.

The Red Sox can offer Clemens exactly what he wants. They can offer money. They offer a chance at the World Series along with three of the youngest pitching phenoms on the planet: Beckett and Papelbon, both clones of Clemens and Matsuzaka, apparently the best pitcher in the world. The rotation offers old friend Tim Wakefield and protégé Curt Schilling whose career was irrevocably altered by a run-in with Roger Clemens. The Red Sox offer the best one-two punch in the game of David Ortiz and Manny Ramirez. It offers widely respected catcher Jason Varitek. Signing with the Red Sox offers Clemens the ability to come full-circle, something that apparently was a huge selling point for him last year. And what else it offers? It offers him his #21 back with a guarantee that it will be retired. For those that don’t know, the Red Sox policy on retired numbers is that the player must be in the Hall of Fame, spend the majority of his career with the Red Sox, and end his career with the Red Sox. The old regime danced around the previous rule by hiring Carlton Fisk as an assistant in the front office right before retiring his number, but all signs since have pointed to the new ownership sticking to the rules, although it would be a shame if Johnny Pesky’s #6 was not retired. The Red Sox can dance around retiring Pesky’s number because he only held #6 officially for one year as a player and four years as a coach before moving to #22 for two years as manager and #35 for five years as a coach and manager, even though he currently suits up as #6 after it had been worn by six other players since he last wore it officially in 1984 (last was Gary Gaetti in 2000).

I got off-track there, but the point is that the Red Sox can offer Clemens a lot. A contending team in a big market where he just happened to start and spend the majority of his year, money, a guarantee of his number being retired … there’s a lot here to appeal to Clemens, and I’m quite positive that the end result will be Clemens going to Boston if the money is there, unless the Astros somehow are contending (which they probably won’t be, as a result of their stupid decision not to pay Andy Pettitte two million more dollars). Only time will tell.

There. All caught up. You’ll hear from Mike, the new Fire Brand writer, tomorrow!

This entry was posted on Monday, January 8th, 2007 at 8:30 am and is filed under Jim Rice, J.D. Drew, Hall of Fame, Roger Clemens, Boston Red Sox / Evan Brunell. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.